Education ministry launches ‘intensive’ campaign to raise standards of English

Since Malta is a bilingual country which can take advantage of English to gain a competitive edge in an increasingly globalised world, striving to improve our standard of English is a logical move.

This was the line taken by Education Minister Evarist Bartolo, who this morning announced his Ministry’s collaboration with Cambridge English, which will assess Malta’s proficiency levels in English before looking into how it can be improved.

“We have participated in enough national studies to know that we need to improve our proficiency in English across the board,” Bartolo said.

“It is a fact that children who struggle with English will also struggle with other subjects – like Mathematics and science subjects. But we are not only doing this for the children. We also need English to bolster our competitive edge,” Bartolo said, suggesting that some urgency may be required in this regard since other countries not traditionally associated with English proficiency are also making an effort to catch up.

“Take Germany, or Eastern European countries, for example… if they are doing all they can to improve their English, then it becomes clear that what we’re doing is logical and very necessary,” Bartolo added.

Asked whether specific problem areas were already identified, Bartolo said that the Ministry and Cambridge English hope to pinpoint them soon. However he added that in light of previous research, and even anecdotal evidence, it is clear that standards need to be improved.

“It has been recorded that 60% of Fifth Formers pass their English O-Level… but that leaves the 40%, which is quite a substantial amount. And anecdotally speaking, going by the scripts I receive as a University lecturer… let’s leave it at that…”

Bartolo said that the ministry is “working towards a contractual agreement [with Cambridge English] which will be set for at least four years. Rest assured that we will help them to understand what the key problems are, every step of the way”.

Bartolo also said that the initiative will strive to provide teachers with continuous professional development.

Cambridge English Language Assessment, UK delivers over four million language assessments every year and has worked with governments and organisations around the world, including commonwealth countries, on similar projects.

The Cambridge English partners involved in this initiative are Martin Robinson (Assistant Director), Dr Hanan Khalifa (Head of Research and International Development) and Sarah Ellis (Head of Assessment Services – Southern Europe).